Featured Artist Chua Chin Leng

Artist Chua Chin Leng of Singapore creates images based on water photography. He shares his fascinating technique, and invites you to visit his website.

“Dance” by artist Chua Chin Leng, 51 cm x 76 cm

‘Show me a canvas and I shall paint,’ said Mother Nature. The works that I have produced are really the works of Mother Nature. Every painting is conceived and created naturally. My role is like an intermediary, understanding what Mother Nature has created and to bring forth their full glories as works of art. Every painting that I helped created has its origin as a photograph of water and nothing else.

“Childhood” by artist Chua Chin Leng, 76 cm x 51 cm

My work is a fusion of photography and painting, two art forms made possible by the advances in digital technology and printing processes. My greatest inspiration is the simple brush, invented centuries ago and still relevant, and the main tool of many great painters of great masterpieces.

“Bulls” by artist Chua Chin Leng, 51 cm x 51 cm

The camera dwarfs the simple brush in complexities and technology but unable to produce the same great works other than their copies. This great disconnect is humbling and also an inspiration to push the boundaries and possibilities of what the camera can do other than photography.

“Fantasy” by artist Chua Chin Leng, 76 cm x 51 cm

By accident, an act of divine intervention, I developed this technique called the Art of Reflection and Refraction or the Art of RAR. The technique embraces the conventional disdain for refraction in photography than rejecting it. The result is simply paintings by the camera.

“Life Spark” by Chua Chin Leng, 51 cm x 76 cm

Every image of water is a storehouse of light, reflected and refracted light, that after digital darkroom processing, could produce many different paintings. The process does not affect the integrity of photography and is not graphic art. By applying layering of colours and textures, the mysterious creation of Mother Nature takes the form of conventional painting when printed on canvas or paper.

“King’s Chamber” by artist Chua Chin Leng, 51 cm x 51 cm

Many forms and variations of paintings can be created from a single image through negotiating and discovering Mother Nature. I spent many hours in conversation with Mother Nature to decipher and translate what she has created in her mysterious way.

“Tree Of Life” by Chua Chin Leng, 51 cm x 76 cm

The guidance I received from some master photographers in my early years helped in many ways to expand the possibilities and the finer aspects of photography as an art form. Otherwise I am a self taught photopainter, with Mother Nature as my ultimate Master.

“Intimate” by artist Chua Chin Leng, 51 cm x 51 cm

Mother Nature is the Master Painter for every piece of my work. This, in a way, makes my paintings absolutely original in concept, untainted by man, inhuman in a way. Each and every piece is a little mystery and a little miracle of Nature.

“Lady Boys” by artist Chua Chin Leng, 76 cm x 51 cm

The Art of RAR is a new art form in its infancy and many interesting works are waiting to be discovered and unveiled. Each piece of work is a painting but not painting, a photograph but not photography, an original but not original. They are the fleeting thoughts of Mother Nature captured by the camera, a piece of art signed by Nature. I will pursue this special and blessed relationship with Mother Nature and to share the fantasy and fascinating beauty of her work with humanity.